Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 24, 1970, Winnipeg, Manitoba Plastic effect of furnishings Slick or icky Winnipeg free press saturday january 24, 1970 19-30 Chicago s p e c i a 1 tons this is the plastic age of furniture but if you think that just Means hard shiny cheap materials you have Only part of the picture. At the Winter Home furnishings Market held Here you could see Doz ens of different kinds of plastic. Some honestly look like plastic. Others look like something else carved Wood Glass leather fabric or Marble Cera Mic As in lamps or rubber As in upholstery padding. The effect can be pretty Dick As in a leather look sofa saved from Over bulkiness by arms of see through plexiglas or it can be pretty icky As in a Gold Nylon damask upholstered tufted Back tub chair with fake cabriole b o w 1 e g s folded from high4mpact rigid polyurethane. Any Man made mater Ial is a plastic starting life in the chemist s retorts and test tubes. Substances Are combined to make a new one then heated to the melting Point end cooled to shape possibly under pressure. Those that soften or melt again under subsequent heat Are called Thermo plastics those that keep their shape when re heated Are called therm sets. A tour of the hundreds of showrooms of the furnishings Trade contained in Chicago s vast merchandise Mart and american furniture Mart reveals thousands of plastic items both straightforward and disguised. These Are fabrics with names such As Dupont s familiar Nylon Dacron orlon and less familiar Avlin Enk lure Bercuson Zef Krome and a Host More from other companies. There Are materials such is naugahyde that look like leather Vinyl strapping that supports chair seats a place of Canvas webbing poly Ester fiber fill for cushions in place of Down or Kapok foam padding for upholstery unseen shells of rigid polyurethane replacing wooden chair frames inflatable chairs and tables foam padded arms and seats on otherwise convention ally constructed Chain stain resistant plastic finishes on wooden tables and cabinets. Flooring manufacturers use Vinyl surfacing and foam under Cushion ing carpet makers employ a bewildering array of Man made yarns. Many a consumer has no idea that the elaborate carving on his Mediterranean or provincial furniture is really Plas tic folded separately and applied to tradition ally styled Wood chairs tables and Case goods. In its seasonally published Magazine a buyer s guide to what s new the american furn iture Mart says if someone tells you that a striking new bedroom suite is made of Wood you rightfully ask if it is Walnut or Cherry or Maple or the same applies to plastics explains the Art icle and they come in Many forms coating Latex pellets and Heads tubing sheeting fibres flexible foam and rigid the Type of plastic used in furniture to re semble Wood is usually of a High Impact Type so that it resist denting and damage better than real Wood does. Plastics whether structural materials or yarns filaments also can have permanent col or As dyes Are added to the liquid form before solidifying distributing the color uniformly throughout the material As it is being made. No paint or stain is needed on furniture folded from plastic and from the manufacturer s stand Point this is a desirable labor Saver since it does away with several finish ing processes. In folded pieces the work of the Joiner is also largely eliminated As units Are often poured in one piece. An exhibit of a dozen or two manufacturers whose products made extensive use of plastic was on View at the american furniture Mart. One traditionally styled dining chair by Howell was made entirely of folded plastic no Wood at All and afm officials said it was stronger than a Wood chair with legs and Back conventionally joined to the seat. A Burly fellow sat Down and tipped Back As men love to do Many a Home Loving Hus band has broken the legs of a chair in this Way. This one won t explained the official because the entire Side legs seat and All is folded in one front and Back seat sections and a Cross piece at the top of the Back join the sides to Gether at Points where there is no Strain on the joints. Plastic is All Over the 12th floor of the Mer Chandise Mart head quarters for the lighting Industry and the Story is not just the modern globes cubes and Mush rooms or even the still popular plastic Tiffany shades Many quite traditional table lamps Are also made of folded plastic that looks like Ceramic but is Chip and shatter proof. Built in coloration is in tense and vivid. Quartile has a whole group of lamps in Orange Parrot Green Lemon yellow Black or White that look like con temporary crafted ceramics. They also have a group of mirrors that Are not for serious looking but have folded plastic frames and photo printed decorations on the Glass. Similar spectrographic printing on occasional furniture pieces is featured by Parkwood laminates who Call their Man made furniture authentic Wood repro two other makers of decorative accessories Soroco and arabesque have built their reputations with woo look Mir ror frames plaques sconces and console shelves All made of folded plastic. The merchandise Hart focuses its attention on the plastic explosion with a luncheon discussion of Why Italy seems to be leading the Way in plastic design and manufacturing techniques. Panellists agreed that Italy s Long time Clim ate of creativity has encouraged both artists and William Goldsmith president of the design firm of Chapman Gold Smith and Yamasaki called Italy a designer s dreamland where both the arts and a desirable Way of life Are flourish in this climate he said the italian designer has had the Freedom to Experiment and has found the Public More receptive to change than in the Competition mass production is not All important in Italy pointed out Carl Levie presi Dent of medallion Furni Ture ltd., which has used Many italian designs. For this reason Italy has been Able to spend time on imaginative technology and hand work and to develop prototype holds for new plastic furniture he said and american manufacturers have bought the finished plan from them. The italians timing was added Albert Spound president of Charlton furniture be cause they provided in expensive manufacturing methods at the time when rising costs of hand crafting were Cut Ting into . Furniture profits. American patents Spound pointed out protect mechanical designs but not artistic ones so that profit conscious manufacturers Are loathe to put Money into the development of designs that May be copied indiscriminately by competitors. A Good Case in Point is the Mies Van Der Rohe Barcelona now available in varying Quality at a wide Range of plastic seems to be Here to stay in the face of Earth s dwindling sup plies of Wood Metal and natural fibres increasing costs of labor and the Scarcity of skilled crafts men. Therm oct carving sofas stuffed with pellets and chairs made in a Mold appear to be the Interior environment of the future so we May As Well learn to live with them. This pointing is a Watercolour called the method of crawling up to a Herd of in the Winter killing several without disturbing the rest by Peter Rindesbacher. It s from the Peabody museum Harvard University. Art gallery going for 150 years in Manitoba Centennial show by Barbara Vedan looked i the attic lately the Winnipeg Art Gal Lery is preparing an exhibition of Manitoba Art and is still missing representatives of the 1880-90 period. Organizing an Art exhibit is not As easy As getting a Book from a Library said or. Ferdinand Eckhardt director of the Winnipeg Art gallery in describing the struggle to prepare its Centennial project 150 years of Art in Manitoba. However this exhibition of paintings draw Ings and sculpture done in the province since 1820, has been More difficult to prepare than most he said during a recent interview. The exhibition will be held i the Manitoba legislative building May 1 to aug. 31. This is the first time a comprehensive history of Manitoban Art has been compiled or. Eckhardt said and there have been Many frustrations. Most Manitoban Art has Sone out of the province the director explained and there Are few records for the per Iod preceding the establishment of the Winnipeg Art gallery in 1921. Fire has further complicated the search. Or. Eckhardt and his assistant mrs. Edmund g. Berry have corresponded with every major Art gallery and Archive in North America and Britain and have travel led All Over Canada and to England in the past years in an Effort to locate and secure works for this exhibition a painting by Peter Rindesbacher one of the first and most famous artists to visit Winnipeg 1821-1826 is not to be found in Manitoba. The Public archives of can Ada in Ottawa have a fairly Good collection of his work but two years ago promised to lend it to a museum in fort Worth Texas for a Rindesbacher exhibition this summer. Or. Eckhardt considered himself Lucky when he found that the Harvard University pea body museum in Cam Bridge Massachusetts had a Rindesbacher that had not been promised to fort Worth. He thought he had successfully arranged to borrow the painting when two Days later or. Eck Hardt received a letter saying they were very sorry but the painting had just been returned from an exhibition and must remain in the museum for a year he fore it could be loaned again. But said or. Eckhardt you have to fight for he called the presi Dent of the museum and pleaded that it was a matter of National Pride to have a Rindesbacher for Manitoba s anniversary. Under these circumstances the presi Dent relented. Peter Rindesbacher came to Manitoba when he was 15 from Switzer land via Hudson Bay and York factory with a group of settlers who had been told to expect a tropical climate. Manitoba had apparently been confused with Louisiana or. Eckhardt said and the newcomers were understandably shocked by the harsh Northern climate. A Rindesbacher was auctioned for in Toronto last Spring the director said. Or. Eckhardt is also interested in collecting the sketch books of the Early travellers for the exhibition. He said artists accompanied Many of the fur trading and military expeditions t o record travels in the same Way a modern tourist takes a camera. However b e cause they were tourists their sketch books usually went Home with them. Mrs. Berry who was holidaying in England last summer spent much of her time searching for these sketch books. It turned into a Back Pil she said. Sir George Back a naval lieutenant when he visited Manitoba in 1825, was one of the better military sketchers mrs. Berry said explaining that most Young officers of the Day were Given training in drawing. Mrs. Berry found one Beautiful Little note Bop of Back in the Scott Polar research Institute Cambridge England which was like an illustrated diary and described his feelings when he first saw the Northern lights. She found More of his work in Many of the British museums As Well As some by a Lieut. Hood arrangements Are being made to borrow some of these for Manitoba s Centennial. Mrs. Berry said she was amazed by the smallness of some of the sketch books. Paper was expensive so they were often made in pocket size and were carefully used. A Watercolour by Back dated june 44, 1825, was acquired by the Winnipeg Art gallery for at an auction in Montreal last year. The gallery also owns a Watercolour two Rivers Portage by William a r t r o n g a civil Engineer who came West with the Wolseley expedition in 1870. More of his work will be borrowed from the Royal Ontario museum s Sigmund Sam Uel Canadian collection. Another traveller whose work will be shown is William g. R. Hind an English Painter. He came West with his brother a geologist in 1862 with the Overlanderr on their Way to the Caribou Gold Rush. Or. Eckhardt and mrs. Berry feel there must be More sketch books in attics All Over England. They advertised in the London times but received no replies. The auctions Are gradually bringing these the director said. Fire has been our big mrs. Berry said. Valuable collections of Manitoban Art were lost when the Selkirk estate in Scotland burned and when the Home of the Marquis of lome near Calais France was destroyed by bombs Dur ing the second world War. She also Felt St. Boni face Cathedral would have yielded some inter Esting examples of Early Manitoban Art if it had not burned three times. A few Watercolours sketched by lord Dufferin when he travelled West in 1877, have been promised by a London ont. Museum for Manitoba s exhibition. A landscape painted in 1872 by w. Frank Lynn the first artist to Settle in Winnipeg has been loaned by a Winnipeg family. Two 1875 copies of this painting of the red River with upper fort Garry in the background and red River carts and Grey nuns in the foreground Are owned by another Winnipeg family and by the Manitoba archives. Or. Eckhardt said it was common practice at that time to make Sev eral copies from a draw ing so the original sketchbooks Are of More historical value. Many artists painted the Prairie Sunset but the director said an 1873 interpretation by Fred Erick a. Verner is believed to be the first. This painting is owned by the. Winnipeg Art gallery. A painting of Berens River by George Overton is on Iran to the gallery for the exhibition or. Eckhardt said. Overton who was an Art dealer and taught at the Winnipeg school of Art until 1936, spent Many of his Summers in the Interlake Region. The Royal Ontario museum in Toronto has a Large collection of works by Paul Kane 1845-48 who is famous for his oils and Pencil sketches of indians and Prairie landscapes. The director said he is trying to borrow about 15 of these. Or. Eckhardt would also like to show some Indian drawings done on Buffalo hides and bark to document the background of Manitoba s Art history in the Centennial exhibition. The search for works to be displayed in the "150 years of Art in Manitoba exhibition is not yet Complete. Until two years ago when a pastel Dufferin Street Market Winni Peg 1927 by Marie guest was acquired by. The Winnipeg Art gallery it was not known that such an artist of considerable proficiency had lived and worked in Winnipeg. To investigate similar possibilities 12 Volun Teers were organized to Aid the gallery by doing the initial leg work when Calls Are received from the Public. Mrs. Dwight Parkinson of King Sway is Secretary of this committee. A Small Watercolour inscribed on the Assini Boine and dated 1890 with the initials awls was found in a local antique shop but thus far or. Eckhardt has been unable to identify the Painter. Or. Eckhardt Hopes the Centennial exhibition will be the turning Point in Manitoban he urges people to search their attics and wants to make Manitoban conscious of what Art could be in the pro Vince. A catalogue with 60 illustrations and about 80 pages of text is being prepared to provide a permanent record of Manitoba s Art history. The director Hopes it will be of particular interest to students. Tours of the exhibition Are being planned for school children during May and june said mrs. Berry. She will need 150 Volunteer tour guides to assist in this program and throughout the summer. Mrs. Berry feels this exhibition will help peo ple to find out More about their province than they Ever new breaking Road in Manitoba Sioux in the distance is the name of this Oil painting by w. G. R. Hind. It s kept in the Public archives of Canada ;